The Justice Department announced a series of actions on Friday aimed at restoring and expanding the use of the federal death penalty, including new execution methods and efforts to speed up capital cases. 

The department directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to broaden its execution protocols to include additional methods beyond lethal injection, such as firing squads, as part of what officials described as a push to “strengthen” enforcement of capital punishment. 

Officials also said the department will reauthorize the use of pentobarbital, the drug used in federal executions during President Donald Trump’s first term, while streamlining internal procedures to reduce delays between sentencing and execution. 

Additionally, the BOP has received orders to relocate or expand the federal death row or construct an additional facility to permit additional means of execution.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Biden administration failed victims by not seeking the death penalty in many violent and gruesome cases. 

“The prior administration failed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to pursue and carry out the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers, and cop killers,” Blanche said. “Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims.”

The release said the measures are intended to ensure that capital sentences are carried out after defendants have exhausted appeals, calling enforcement of the death penalty a “solemn duty.” 

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The Biden administration had previously put an indefinite moratorium on the use of pentobarbital and declined to impose the death penalty in many cases. The former president’s administration also commuted the sentences of most federal death row inmates before leaving office. 

Under Trump, federal executions resumed after a nearly two-decade hiatus, with 13 inmates put to death in the final months of his first term.